Web Koihime Musou Closed Beta Review by Zevri

Koihime Musou is a new web game that has recently joined Beanfun's roster of games. The game is currently in its "sneak peak" phase, which is only accessible to those who have a key. Since the game is in the "sneak peak" stage, it is not complete in that all features may not be active yet, but it is still possible to get a good idea of how it is in its present form.

This is a strategy web game which is loosely based off of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games with a twist; all of the characters in the game are female. Now, this may sound a bit odd, but since the game originates as an Adult visual novel, it makes a bit of sense. The adult content from the visual novel is not present in the game, but still has some pictures that hint of its origins, but the images are rather tame in comparison.

Starting out in the game players make a few choices, which impact on the gameplay a bit. First you do the rather standard picking your name and base name, but after that you're tasked with picking a strategist, which also serves as your first Warlord. The choice for your strategist is based off of personal taste, and the skillset you want her to bring. She isn't a set choice, as you do have the option to change a strategist to one of your other warlords. After making that selection you decide on who you will fight for, one of the three kingdoms that is out to unite them all. The choice is also not set as you can change your kingdom later as well. The final choice is where you want to be on the battlefront if you want to be closer to the action, or further away; this choice gives you a lot of options to go through as there are ten different starting positions for you to choose.

From there some of the elements of the game are fairly standard in the empire building genre. You're able to place structures on a grid, but you're only making one of each with resources being set outside of the base's walls. You can level up resources and structures to increase productivity and also unlock more buildings to place. The building queue is a little different as time is stacked for each building, not separate. So if you upgrade two buildings one taking 1 hour then the second taking 5 minutes, the 1 hour one will be completed first, followed by the 5 minute one; which is a little odd since most do it separately. This system requires you to plan ahead on what you want to upgrade, as if you do the shorter ones last, it can take a lot longer than it needs to.

Players are able to expand their territory by "sharing" land. Sharing land is a process in which you can stake claim to a land with others from your region, some of these areas also improve your production with certain resources, but not only that they also expand to where you can place additional bases. As you share land you're given the ability to share more and more as time goes on giving you a further reach on where you can place additional bases. By strategically placing where you share, you can plan out where you want each base to go in relation to what nation you want to be closer to, to attack, or further away to stay away from the action.

Beyond the tutorial, missions run sort of dry. After you complete the initial objectives, you will get one at a time telling you to conquer one thing or another. Beyond that you can do missions set out by other players needing resources, the royal castle wanting a certain item, or ones to attack nearby mini-castles. So after you go through the tutorial, missions are rather dry and hard to come by. The rewards also relate to the achievement system; except for the "official" missions from the tutorial or the few after, which do give resources and sometimes gems. Which when you reach certain milestones, you're able to make another base. They're rather easy to complete, since the most you will do are probably the resource ones from other players, since they offer a lot more achievement than the mini-castle attack, and are rather quick to complete. Without variety however, the mission system feels rather dull and doesn't really offer much in the way to keep your interest. It mostly just plays as a way to get the achievement needed to make another base.

Coins in the game are primarily used for getting new Warlords, but they're also fairly hard to come by. Starting out, you're easily able to get three Warlords by following the tutorial missions which gives you the feeling that it would be easy for the rest of the time, but it really isn't. You're able to get coins by trading resources and attacking mini-castles; both of which offer minimal pay and the amount of time it takes to get another Warlord, being that the price goes up for each one you get, makes the task rather daunting. This doesn't really make sense in relation to the features, which one being that the training of warlords requires the training partner to be sacrificed. So not only is it difficult to get additional warlords, it makes the training feature seem almost useless till you're fairly late in the game.

Battles in the game are less than thrilling. You do get to send out your troops to the designated area and give them various instructions such as attack and return home or attack and garrison. But once they reach their destination and the battle commences all you're treated to are the results. Preparing for an attack and trying to strategize is thrown out the window as it seems there is no visible way to find out what troops the enemy has in wait. So it feels like a trial and error mixed in with who has the better attack with mixed troops. The warlord's skills do seem to come into play as you do read about them and a little of how the battle went in the reports. But all in all it still felt like it needed some fleshing out with features to add a bit of depth to the attacks; even something as simple as being able to spy on another castle/base with a chance to see the troops in or information on the base would have made the battles a bit better.

Overall the game at this stage is decent, despite its kinks. The game has a low learning curve, which is great for those getting into the genre. But some of the features do make the game rather dull and hard to get into. Due to the slow paced play of the game, it is better suited for those looking for a more casual browser game, than those expecting to get into the thick of battle right away.

Self Introduction From Author:

Zevri

I have been playing mmos since about 1999, and haven't stopped since, and I cannot even remember when I started console/pc gaming. I'm an avid gamer who does dive back into the real world from time to time. My all time goal is to start my own business, but that is taking a side step as I am going through college.